Will medicated chick starter really kill laying hens? Another ? in OP

[rosemarythyme]

Grower feed is specific to growing meat birds and is not intended to be fed to laying hens, It would be best to not offer the grower to laying hens as it doesn't offer the calcium required for the hens and it is a higher protein content than layer feeds...

This isn't exactly true. There's broiler feed which is generally high protein meant for fast growth in meat birds, and then there's grower which may or may not have more protein than layer (usually does) but does not have extra calcium. Every manufacturer uses terminology differently which further confuses things.

Most grower feed is suitable for layers (with calcium supplemented on the side) or as an all-flock type feed. Higher protein can be desirable in many cases as well as birds can exhibit certain bad behaviors if protein level is too low.

My flock gets half grower, half layer - so that slightly bumps up the protein % they get and also drops the calcium % (as I have some birds that are very sporadic layers).

 

[Kindpharm]

This isn't exactly true. There's broiler feed which is generally high protein meant for fast growth in meat birds, and then there's grower which may or may not have more protein than layer (usually does) but does not have extra calcium. Every manufacturer uses terminology differently which further confuses things.

Most grower feed is suitable for layers (with calcium supplemented on the side) or as an all-flock type feed. Higher protein can be desirable in many cases as well as birds can exhibit certain bad behaviors if protein level is too low.

My flock gets half grower, half layer - so that slightly bumps up the protein % they get and also drops the calcium % (as I have some birds that are very sporadic layers).

I reckon it does lead to confusion! Thank you for that information!

 

[Dovecote2017]

Chick feed will not kill layers. I've done that when I merge the young chicks with adults wihtout a problem. Not a good idea if you are to keep the chick starter on them full time. A short time will be fine.

Question… should I withhold eggs from the laying adult hens due to medication?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Question… should I withhold eggs from the laying adult hens due to medication?

You need to specify what medication. If you are talking amprolium, there's no withdrawal time.

 

[BrennerHomestead]

I just came across this post. I just wanted to share my experience with the whole medicated chick feed/layer feed. I start all chicks with a big bag of medicated chick feed once that is gone they switch to layer crumbles or pellets depending on what I have available. (Feed store usually only has one or the other half the time.) As for the medicated to the adult birds. Twice a year I run a bag full through the whole flock. I have never had any issues with my birds dying from anything other than old age or predators. I still have a rooster that I hatched out 8 years ago. I also only mix scratch grains in with their food in the winter. Happy healthy chickens. I did however learn the hard way that ducklings can NOT have medicated chick feed. I killed a whole hatch of ducklings with it. So that's why I run the whole bag through the chicks once it's gone I don't have to worry about killing ducklings that grow out in the chicken pen before joining the adult ducks.